Mapping of water frost and ice at low latitudes on Mars

This paper reports on mapping of water frost and ice on Mars, in the range of latitudes between 30°S and 30°N. The study has been carried out by analysing 2485 orbits acquired during almost one martian year by the Mars Express/OMEGA imaging spectrometer. Water frost/ice is identified by the presence of ∼1.5 μm, ∼2 μm and ∼3.0 μm absorptions. Although the orbits analysed in this study cover all seasons, water frost/ice is observed only near the aphelion seasons, at Ls = 19° and at Ls = 98-150°. Water frost/ice is detected mainly on the southern hemisphere between 15°S and 30°S latitude while it has not been identified within 15°S-15°N. In the northern hemisphere, the water frost/ice detection is complicated by the presence of clouds. Usually, water frost/ice is found in shadowed areas, while in few cases it is exposed to the sunlight. This indicates a clear relationship with the local illumination conditions on the slopes which favour the water frost/ice deposition on the surface when the temperatures are very low. OMEGA observations span from 10 to 17 LT and the frost/ice is detected mainly between 15 and 16 LT, with practically no detection before 13 LT. We think this is due to the fact that the 10-12 LT observations occur at large distances and it is not a local time effect. A thermal model is used to determine the deposition conditions on the sloped surfaces where water frost/ice has been found. There, daily atmospheric saturation does not occur on pole facing 10-25° slopes with current water vapour abundances but only by assuming values greater than 40 pr μm. Moreover, the water frost/ice is not detected during the northern winter, even if the thermal model foresees daily saturation on 25° slopes.